Hot Spring

The Personas were more like the mortals than the mortals knew. They assumed that Personas were aloof, uncaring, arrogant, immortal and immune to disease and age. They were wrong on four counts. Personas did care, just not for what mortals cared about. They weren't too aloof and did have emotions. They weren't so arrogant that they didn't admit their mistakes, for if they didn't, the other Personas would pester them about it until they did admit it. And while they were immortal, they weren't immune to illness and age, though in a different manner. Personas aged slowly. Slow enough that millions of years was just a blink of an eye to them, though their children aged faster, still slower than mortals however. And Personas could get sick. They got sick whenever they got out of balance. For example, Life got sick whenever there was too little life or too much. It was a balance between actual sickness and overwork which in turn would cause sickness. Immortal though they were, they could still get stressed, just as Death was now.
Death coughed heavily.
"Mistress, that was bone-rattling. I could hear it all the way from Eden." Evolution said, appearing beside her.
Death glared at her, refusing to dignify that statement with a response. It was true, though. When Death coughs, everyone jumps, even the mortals though they don't know why. It doesn't bode well.
"Mistress, wouldn't it be better if, you know, you just wipe out those already infected? It'd save you a lot of time and effort and you could relax."
"Evvy, you know very well that some of the plague victims have a chance to live. I will not take that away from them. Besides, I'd just make Life sick."
"Oh yeah, that's right. Dead right."
Death threw a femur at her.
"Ow, okay, fine, I'll stop with the jokes, sheesh, talk about no sense of humour. Especially because dead people don't have any of the four humours." She muttered under her breath.
"I heard that. Make another joke and I'll stake your shins backwards to the ground."
"Mmm. Chaos is feeling kinda down. He apologises for stressing you out."
"It's ok. We've all got our respective parts to play. He probably should relax."
"No, you should relax. He is relaxing already, slacking out in Eden. You, on the other hand, should go to the Librarium. Tallis didn't ban you too, did he?"
"Nope, only Growth, Decay, Chaos and all of the Emotions."
Tallis was the librarian. He had once been a mortal, but when a pirate raid had threatened his beloved store of knowledge, he had pledged himself to the service of the Personas for all of eternity if only they would save the knowledge. Life had rescued him, brought him up to their plane and he became their librarian, in charge of every single literary work that was being made or had been written. Not just that, but also sculptures, works of arts, music scores, he organised and managed everything with an efficiency that put the Personas to shame. He had made certain rules, banning three of the seven Natural Personas from entering as their presence would destroy his life's, his existence's work. The Emotional Personas were also banned, except for Joy and Love. Until one day, Tallis had discovered Joy and Love both had the joy of sharing. He had then banned them both too, no exceptions. Years of working with the Personas had given him a degree of familiarity with them that bordered on irreverence, but he was certainly entitled to it.
Death nodded. She did need a break and she did love reading. She appeared outside the Librarium, unable to appear directly inside thanks to the wards that Chaos had put up at the request of Tallis. She steppedd into the dry air, perfectly conditioned for the preservation of the the books.
"Lady Death." Tallis was tall but hunched over, brown skin slightly wrinkled but considering everything, extremely well-preserved. He came from the same time period as Chaos' Chinese though slightly older. Death remembered that his race had been what was known as Persian. Tallis wore gold bangles around his neck, around his arms, had gold ear rings, nose rings and it was a wonder that he didn't collapse with the sheer weight of his accessories.
"Tallis." She smiled. "I hope I have not been banned as well."
"No, Lady." He treated her with a greater amount of respect than the others, she being Life's wife. He never forgot his gratitude towards Life and never let Life forget it either. "Unless you intend to borrow some books and pass them to Decay, Growth, or the Emotional ones."
"What about Chaos then?"
"To tell you the truth, Lady, I don't mind him reading. What I mind is that his presence will mess up all the ordering. You can take him some books if you want, just not any of the more volatile ones. They react badly to presences. I fear that the words might get jumbled."
"I see."
"And take care not to get that scythe in something." He warned, turning back to his organising.
She shook her head and headed towards the fiction section. She really found it quite interesting what mortals could think of and write about.

Death wouldn't like this. But never mind her. Like Chaos always said, there were five things the mortal plane had that here on their plane didn't. Wine, drugs, hot baths, technology and, as a result, fried food. This time, their sojourn down was for the third.
Evolution appeared at Chaos' side, along with Growth and Mariko. Pity Creation couldn't make it.
"Settled Death?" Growth asked softly, vines perpetually growing about him as well as flowers in the bloom.
"She's at the Librarium." Evolution changed her appearance to that of an elf, hiding all aspects of her Personality. "Growth, try to look more regular."
"Sure. I don't understand why she doesn't like going down for recreation."
"Beats me. Mariko, what're you doing here?"
"I brought her along. Del, Arrt, Iria, Iris and Irus didn't want to come." Chaos said.
"I like the hot springs." Mariko said brightly. "But is that all we're going to do?"
"Pretty much, unless you guys want to walk around a little." Chaos held up an inky triangular piece of blackness.
"Ooh, what's that?"
"It's nothing. Literally. Don't touch it, Mariko." He drew a long vertical line in the air with the scale. The air ripped apart lightly, forming a tear to the mortal plane. They stepped through one by one, coming out onto a side alley off a busy street.
"Come on. I know a bathhouse."

Settling into the burning water slowly, Evolution gave a sigh of satisfaction. Chaos had just plunged right in to his neck, looking for all the world to be an eager young boy. Mariko had followed suit and squealed at the temperature, though she didn't rise out of the water. Growth still tested the water tentatively, this being his first time. He didn't usually join the other Personas in their sojourns to the mortal plane and knew little about mortals.
"Mariko! What are you doing? Why're you stripping? This is a public spring, we didn't get a private one!"
"There's no one else around, is there? No one comes at this hour."
"Why would you want to strip under the water anyway?"
"I want to be fully in contact with the water."
"It's against the rules to strip, Mariko. You have to at least wear your your bra and panties."
"Oh fine."
"And I'm surprised you can still chew bubblegum here. Won't it be soggy?"
"Apparently not." She blew a bubble, just to prove her point.
Chaos moved over beside her and whispered, "Mariko's just like her mother. No point lecturing her, really."
"Pink would go nude if she could." Evolution replied. "How'd you know what Mariko's like anyway? You visit the House Of Del often?"
"Once in a while. It's fun there. Not much to do up in our side of things, you know."
"Maybe we should bring more mortals up. Like Tallis."
"No, please, considering the way Tallis turned out, I'd say that the only mortals who call upon us for help are either mad, or dry and humourless."
The door leading outside slid open and Evolution groaned. How unlucky could she get? Hopefully, the mortal wouldn't recognise her in this form- No, she'd granted her the sight, of course she would recognise them. Raewyn and the six teens came in with her. Not just her pet project, but her main work too! She should have checked if the mortals knew each other.
"-Lune's sick so Sol's taking care of h-" She stopped and stared. "Is that... Are you... Evolution, is that you?"
Evolution sank deeper into the water, up to her bottom lip, muttering, "I'm not here, you don't know me, I don't know what you're talking about."
Raewyn stepped closer. "Evolution?"
"Evolution? Ev, how's this mortal know about you? How can she recognise you?" Chaos asked.
Evolution groaned. "Why couldn't you just have kept quiet a little, Chaos..." She sighed and turned. "Raewyn. Hello."
"Evolution, what are you doing here?"
"What do you think I'm doing, mortal? I'm enjoying a good, long soak."
"Congratulations, Ev, you must be the only one in history to have ever said that line."
"I... uh, right. Of course." Raewyn said, not sure how to respond.
"Raewyn? Who's she?" Cocytus asked.
"Um." Raewyn looked towards Evolution. "Can I tell?"
"Go ahead. I guess it doesn't matter anymore. Chaos, that one with the odd skin formation, that's Raewyn. She's my pe-, uh, one of my projects. I'll tell you more later."
"That's Evolution, the Natural Persona. She's interested in me thanks to this taint I have." Raewyn explained to the group as they sank into the hot pool beside the Personas.
"What? The Personas have kept to themselves for ages and out of nowhere Evolution likes you becau-"
"She doesn't like me, curse you, Styx! I meant interested, literally! Ugh, I'll tell you guys about it later, okay? What are you smiling at?" Raewyn snapped at Chaos.
"Ev, you gave her the sight, didn't you? Hey, Raewyn, is it? Do you recognise me?"
"I don't know you, boy..." She trailed off uncertainly. He felt familiar. He was very... so very familiar. He was... Chaos. The word came unbidden. Chaos. "Chaos. You're Chaos. But, you're the oldest, aren't you?"
"Yes. And so?"
"Why're you appear the youngest then?"
"How'd you know this is my natural humanoid form?"
"I didn't know. So this is how you look like normally. Huh. So the oldest looks to be the youngest. You Personas are weird." Raewyn looked at Growth. "Um. I assume that you're a Natural Persona too?"
"Growth doesn't really like talking to mortals that much." Chaos cut in. "He's just here for the hot spring."
"Oh. Then you must be Pink?"
"Oh no, that's my mum. I'm Mariko, pleased to meet you."
"Raewyn Aesiflay, glad to make your acquaintance. I didn't know Personas could have children. So who's your dad, then?"
"My dad was some mortal from a long time back. So I'm only half Persona, not like Del or Arrt."
"Mariko, ah yes, Evvy mentioned your name to me. Something about baby-sitt-" Evolution jabbed her with a talon quickly formed on her hand. "Ow. Okay. Who's Del and Arrt?"
"Del's Death's and Black's daughter, she's quite nice and Arrt's Wrath's and Impulse's son."
"Death and Black are together?"
"Oh, that was a long time ago. Now Death and Life are together."
"So, what's the House Of Del?"
"It's where we go. By we, I mean all the children of the Personas. It's our home."
"The House Of Del? Wait, isn't that where Delirious came from?" Phlegyas cut in.
"Delirious?"
"Um. Delirus."
"Del and Blue's children, Iria, Iris and Irus have the odd ability to merge together. Del and Irus must have come together, yes?" Chaos said.
"I think so, according to the papers. Then it said that he got sent to the asylum."
"Oh yeah. We brought them out and separated them."
"And scolded them, don't forget." Mariko reminded him.
"Yes. The scolding was deserved. They weren't supposed to be merged for so long or be out there."
"I can't believe we were taught Magic by the children of the Personas." Styx said.
"I did like their lessons though." Cocytus said wistfully. "I wonder if they'd still remember us."
"Seeing as how we're now all acquaintances, I'm willing to bring you mortals to the House Of Del sometime." Chaos offered.
"Psst. Don't. Please." Evolution whispered to him. "It's not just Raewyn who's my project. Those five are the ones you and the rest disapproved of. That other girl is his girlfriend."
"Really? Interesting. I will make use of this opportunity then." Chaos said, thinking deeply.
"I'd rather not get closer to them more than I have to."
"If you'll forgive my impertinence, may I ask why you Personas are suddenly more active down here?" Lethe asked.
"What makes you think that?"
"There's been no record of any form of contact, all that stuff, I'm sure you've heard of it before."
"We're not any more active than we have been in the past. You folks just never knew."
"I see. It's weird, sharing a hot spring with immortals. I wonder if my... No, I doubt so."
"Lethe. Don't try." Kestrel warned.
"I know. I'm not mad." Lethe got out of the water, the rest following in turn.
"Don't you Personas have to get out after fif- Right. I forget what I'm saying. Of course you immortals don't have to get out after fifteen minutes. You're not affected."
"But we do find it relaxing. The mortal plane has five things that we don't."
"Wine, drugs, hot baths, technology and fried food." Mariko and Evolution chorused. "Yes Chaos, we know."
"Something's wrong, when Chaos gets to be predictable. I think I will have to do some work." He said, rubbing his chin.